Pokémon Go Battle League's First Season Approaches With Reward Changes & A New Exclusive TM

Pokémon Go’s, GO Battle League pre-season is coming to an end and with that developer, Niantic has announced a bunch of information as to what we can expect the first proper season will look like for trainers.

Firstly, if you reached rank 4 or above in the preseason you’ll be getting a premium battle pass as a reward. And from now until the season starts you’ll also be able to battle it out in whatever league you see fit as they’re all accessible.

Three Legendary Pokémon are being added as rare encounter rewards in GO Battle starting from today:

Darkrai is available now with a shiny chance until March 9th at 10 PM local time.
Altered Form Giratina will be available from March 13th at 8 AM local time until March 16th at 10 PM local time with a shiny chance.
Thundurus will be available as an encounter in all other times until they remove it. This means between March 9th at 10:01 PM local time until March 13th at 7:59 AM local time and then from March 16th at 10:01 PM local time until further notice is given.

To prepare for Season 1 of GO Battle League there will be two events to help get strong Pokémon and stardust.

The following is taken directly from the Pokemon Go Blog:

“From Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Thursday, March 12, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time, strong Pokémon will be appearing in raids, including Skarmory, Swampert, Shieldon, and more! Registeel and Cresselia will be appearing in five-star raids. You’ll also earn twice the usual Stardust from Raid Battles and Trainer Battles during this event. Please note that this bonus will not apply to GO Battle League Trainer Battles.
From Friday, March 13, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Monday, March 16, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time, more Pokémon thought to be powerful in the GO Battle League will be available in raids, including Altered Forme Giratina in five-star raids. Fighting-type Pokémon will also be appearing more frequently in the wild! Also if you’re lucky, you might find a Shiny Timburr! Your best bet would be battling and catching it in one-star raids! There will also be the following GO Battle League bonuses during the event period.”

There will also be some GO Battle League events during this period:

“You’ll receive a Premium Battle Pass when you win all five battles in a set on the premium track of the GO Battle League.
You’ll be able to complete seven sets of GO Battle League battles per day, up from the regular five sets, for a total of up to 35 battles a day!
You’ll receive bonus Stardust in the GO Battle League.”

Season 1 kicks off March 14th at 7 AM AEDT. It’ll rotate through the three leagues on the following days:

Great League from launch until 7 AM on Saturday the 28th of March when it’ll switch to Ultra League.
Ultra League will then run until 6 AM Saturday the 25th of April.
From that point until Saturday, May 1st at 6 AM all leagues will be open again.

Niantic has stated they’re working to tweak and fine-tune the rewards going forward but will at least be changing the following:

More stardust rewards for higher ranks as well an increased TM drops.
Ranks 2 & 3 will now require a certain number of wins to progress.
Metagross will be your guaranteed first wild encounter reward. At rank 4 you’ll encounter Beldum and then at rank 7 you’ll have the chance to encounter Rufflet who’ll be making their Pokémon Go debut this way.
If you reach rank 10 you’ll be guaranteed to encounter Pikachu Libre.
Rank 10 will also earn you items inspired by the Pokémon Trainer Steven from the Hohen Region, including a pose that will be season 1 exclusive.
Machop, Snorlax and Meditate are leaving as encounters with Scraggy getting an increased rate.
And finally, the introduction of Elite Charged TM’s shall be rewarded to players who finish rank 7 or above. This new TM will allow you to select the exact move you want the Pokémon to learn, including past moves only available during community or raid days.